Weekly News - Friday 12th November 2021

Year 1 Trip - Roald Dahl Gallery

To enrich their literacy studies, Year 1 enjoyed an action packed day on Tuesday at the Roald Dahl Gallery in Aylesbury. They explored the museum and gardens looking for inspiration for their dream bottles and then became very engrossed illustrating their ideas and creating their very own dream bottle!

They also had fun investigating all the hands on exhibits within the gallery. They went inside a giant peach and used a microscope to identify numerous mini-beasts. They also had fun in Fantastic Mr. Fox's tunnel and loved pretending to fly up the shoot in Willy Wonka's Factory! The children did, however, keep away from The Chokey as none of them wanted to be put in there by Mrs. Trunchbull! 

It was an amazing day and the children all agreed that they would love to go back again! We would encourage parents to take children to this wonderful place whenever the opportunity arises. 

You can see lots of photographs of the trip on our Galleries page.

Year 3 Music

This term in music lessons, Year 3 are learning about Music from Western Africa. This week they enjoyed playing Djembe drums to improvise their own rhythms over an ostinato pattern. 

 

 

 

Year 3 Maths

In Maths this week, Year 3 have been learning about perimeter. They enjoyed taking their learning outside where they measured the perimeter of different things in the playground.

 

 

 

 

Chamber Choir Performance at St. John's Smith Square

We wish the Chamber Choir well for Sunday, when they will be joining with other prep schools from across London to perform in the Children's Trust Concert at the beautiful St. John's Smith Square. Thank you to everyone who will be attending to support the choir - you are in for a treat! This is the first of many opportunities for our Chamber Choir to perform this year.

Sports News

On Wednesday our U11 netball team played against St. Mary's School and continued their winning streak, with the match ending 8-0. Both teams showed great skill and determination in some pretty awful weather as the match progressed, as well as excellent sporting attitudes. Well done, girls!

 

Congratulations are also due to our U11 football team who won the Reddiford Challenge Cup tournament this week and brought their trophy back to school with pride! They won three matches and drew two during the competition, which secured them the top spot from amongst six local prep schools. We are very proud of their performance.

 

 

 

 

Switch Off Fortnight

We have had a very successful start to our Switch Off Fortnight. All of the children have been very active in ensuring the lights are being turned off in their classrooms and other empty rooms, powering down their Chromebooks when not in use and making sure that teachers are turning off the overhead projectors and computers at the end of lessons. We will continue our energy saving campaign next week, when we will also be announcing which class had the most amount of switch offs and will be awarded the title of Eco Class of the week. We hope that you are all remembering to switch off at home wherever possible too.

Road Safety Week - Next Week

Next week is Road Safety Week and we ask that the children wear bright socks next Friday as part of the 'Be Bright, Be Seen' initiative. Our new Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTAs) presented an assembly on 'Road Safety Heroes' and Be Bright, Be Seen' today to inspire the children to take part in this important initiative. There is further information for parents here. 

World Kindness Day

Saturday 13th November is World Kindness Day. At school we have been looking at random acts of kindness, and parents might like to do something similar at home with your children over the weekend. You can find out more information here:
https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/world-kindness-day

Mrs. Drummond's Head's Blog this week also addresses themes of kindness and happiness. 

Charity

Well done to Tiya T, one of our charity representatives, who showed great initiative in writing to Lord Dolar Popat, the Prime Minister's Trade Evnvoy to Rwanda, Uganda and DRC, to let him know about the work we are currently doing at school to support Children in Need and the Royal British Legion. Tiya shared with him a poster that she had made to promote our charity efforts.

Lord Dolar Popat replied to Tiya's email to congratulate the school on its efforts and to pledge a donation to our fundraising.

Remembrance Day

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Poppy Appeal this week. We thought that you might like to see this beautiful display, which is currently on show in the Upper School Hall.

We marked Remembrance Day yesterday with a silence at school and spoke about why we remember this day and the many men and women who gave their lives in fighting for the freedoms we enjoy today. 

It is not too late for parents to donate online to the Poppy Appeal via the St. Helen's College JustGiving website if you would like to do so. The fundraising page can be accessed here.

Children in Need

Next Friday, 19th November, is Children in Need and as usual we will be supporting this very worthy charity. Children may come into school wearing Children in Need items or their own clothes, which could use the Children in Need themes of yellow or spots. You can purchase Pudsey or Blush ears and other Children in Need items at the online Children in Need shop here. We ask that parents make a donation to Children in Need so that children may wear their own clothes on Friday 19th November. You can do this via our JustGiving page here.

We will also have wristbands available for sale at school, priced at £1 each and there will also, as usual, be a raffle at all three sites with tickets on sale for £1 each. Prizes will be Blush and Pudsey bears. Please allow your child to bring some money into school next week if they would like to buy wristbands and/or raffle tickets. Our charity reps have also promoted a Pudsey competition for pupils in Years 2-6, challenging children to create a Pudsey bear using whatever medium they would like and being as creative as possible. These imagined Pudseys do not have to be yellow! Winners will be announced next week and the competition also costs £1 to enter, which will be donated to Children in Need. We hope you will support your children with their creative ideas for their Pudsey.

We thank you, as always, for your generous support.

PA Forum Meeting

The next PA Forum meeting will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday 16th November. Thank you to parents who have sent in suggestions for discussion points. Minutes will be circulated to all parents following the meeting.